Proof Of Afterlife By Information

4.3 Section Three: The Processor

4.3.1 Overview Of A Processor

A computer processor consists of a small number of memory registers and a program counter.

The illustration below shows the exterior of a processor. The processor has 16 address lines (shown in red) and 16 data lines (shown in blue). It also has a read/write line (shown in green) and a clock line. This processor is intended to work with 16-bit memory as shown on the left. 16-bit memory has 16 address lines and 16 data lines. We wire our processor on the right to the memory on the left. Now we have a computer.

Our small 16-bit computer contains 65,000 memory locations. That is 2 to the 16th power. That is how many memory locations 16 address lines will support. Each memory location has 16 bits of data. The total number of bits our processor can support is 65,000 times 16 or 1,040,000 bits. With memory connected to the processor it can access any bit within this in memory. Our processor’s 16-bit wide architecture allows us to place a memory address in a data register and reach any location in memory.

4.3.2 Reading Data From Memory

Reading data from memory into the processor is done in three steps:

1. Load a memory address into data register A.
2. Read the contents of the data at the address in register A into register B.

The information is read into the processor immediately as shown here:

4.3.3 Writing Data To Memory

Writing data from the processor to memory is a three step process too:

1. Move the memory address into data register A.
2. Move the data to be written into data register B.
3. Write the data.

Writing data happens at immediately. The data will overwrite whatever is in the affected memory location.

4.3.4 Writing Data To Memory

Writing data from the processor to memory is a three step process too:

1. Move the memory address into data register A.
2. Move the data to be written into data register B.
3. Write the data.

Writing data happens at immediately. The data will overwrite whatever is in the affected memory location.

4.3.5 The Processor And Memory

The processor sits in the center of computer memory. You can think of this as a focal point within a universe of computer memory. A processor can “reach” every location its surrounding memory space. Reaching a memory address is the ability to write data to it and write data from it. Physically the processor can reach its memory because all the memory address lines and data lines are wired directly into the processor. A processor can perform operations on data but mostly what is does is move data to and from memory.